1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ink tube connecting method in a liquid injection recording apparatus of the type in which a recording head unit is mounted on a carriage and ink is supplied to the recording head unit through an ink tube, and to a liquid jet recording apparatus using the same connecting method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A liquid jet recording apparatus of the type in which a recording head unit is mounted on a carriage and is connected to an ink tank by a flexible ink tube has heretofore been used as a high-performance recording apparatus such as a printer or a facsimile apparatus which is the output apparatus of a computer instrument. In the recording apparatus of this type, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings, two guide shafts 2A and 2B are disposed parallel to a platen 1 and a carriage 3 is movably mounted on these guide shafts 2A and 2B. A recording head unit comprising a recording head 4 disposed in opposed relationship with the platen 1 and a sub-ink tank 5 disposed rearwardly of the recording head is mounted on the carriage 3. The recording head 4 which is recording means and the sub-ink tank 5 are connected together by a supply pipe 6 to enable ink which is a recording medium to be supplied. Further, an ink tube (supply tube) 7A for supplying ink from an ink tank (main ink tank), not shown, and an ink tube (discharge tube) 7B for discharging ink and/or gas by the operation of a suction pump for sucking ink from the recording head 4 are connected to the sub-ink tank 5. The tubes 7A and 7B are connected to the sub ink tank 5 through couplings 8A and 8B provided on a side of the sub-ink tank, and particularly, the discharge tube coupling 8B is positioned vertically above the supply tube coupling 8A to keep the quantity of ink in the sub-ink tank 5 constant. The two tubes 7A and 7B are juxtaposed and made intergral with each other and are drawn around to the rearward main tank with an allowance length sufficient to be capable of following the movement of the carriage 3, and the material of these tubes is flexible.
However, in the structure according to the prior art, where the flexible tubes 7A and 7B are juxtaposed and made integral with each other, the plane of juxtaposition is a vertical plane, and this has led to a problem that when the carriage 3 is slidingly moved, the whole of the tubes 7A and 7B juts out of the guide shaft 2A. Therefore, a sufficient space for the fixing and operation of the tubes 7A and 7B is required outside the rearward guide shaft 2A, and this has led to the bulkiness of the apparatus.